Robots are taking over making America's favorite dish, with chains like PizzaForno setting up automated kiosks

Pizza may be the perfect food for automation. It's composed of relatively few ingredients and many chains, Domino's (DPZ) - Get Domino's Pizza, Inc. Report included, already use automated ovens. That makes it a relatively small leap (albeit an expensive one) to go from semiautomated to fully automated and one small U.S. chain has said it's not only doing it but doing it well. 

American pizza chain PizzaForno is investing in robot-operated artisanal pizza vending machines as food tech enjoys its disruptive moment amid acute labor shortages in the U.S. 

The fast-casual chain is planning to set up 1,000 fully automated PizzaForno kiosks across the U.S. by the end of next year. The company has 40 kiosks in North America, including five units in Michigan.

This Is Not New Technology

PizzaForno co-Founders Les Tomlin and Will Moyer told QSR Magazine, a trade publication for the fast-food restaurant segment, that they first witnessed the "aha" moment in a small French town north of Paris 3 1/2 years ago.

"The technology has been around France for the better part of 10 years. Covid, the labor shortage, people don't want to spend 10 minutes waiting for anything. All those things add up to super fast, super convenient, super quick serve. That's where I think everybody's got to go," Tomlin said.

PizzaForno partly bakes its crusts, flash freezes them, then has humans top them at regional kitchens before they’re delivered to the refrigerated innards of its 80-square-foot machines.